The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-01-01

money without some equivalent of
service. Is not this true charity
Help the poor to help themselves.
Never give them dollar, if by any
possibility you can give them chance
TO earn a dollar; unless it is given sup
Elementary to their own best efforts.
II family are really trying to be self
supporting, and you know it, if they are
worthy and can be trusted to make a
good use of your gifts, then you may
give to them as you would give to
friend. OF course there will always
remain the sick, the crippled, the blind,
the aged, the helpless children who
must be cared for. What you have to
give In charity may well go to these.
1t will tax the benevolent to the extent
of their ability, to sustain the really
helpless, and it is much better that all
others shall be helped to support them
selves. That all the worthy may be
helped In this way, will require much
labor, and thought, and patience, upon
the part of the benevolent and the kind
hearted. But can we in any way justify
ourselves, if we neglect or refuse to do
these things ? Are we not called upon
by every consideration of duty and hui
mainly to do what lies within our power
to answer this cry of the human, that
goes up from every street of every large
city, and pierces the ears of God? Can
we leave the poor in the depths of their
degradation, in their poverty, their in
temperance, their vice, their ignorance,
and folding our hands say calmly, "Am
l my brothers. keeper 2" There is a
story OF German peasant, who at the
end of the year bought himself new
overcoat, the fruit of much labor and
self denial. But on his way home he
came to shivering soldier, who must
keep his watch the live-long night.
He took off his coat, and threw it upon
the shoulders of the needy man, saying,
Brother, you need this more than l
do" and trudged on his way home,
with heart SO warm, that it rose su-
perior to all the freshness of the night.
Soon after, death came to the poor peas
ant, and as his wandering eye caught
| sight of the form of the Saviour near,
he said: "You are clothed with my
coat" Eyes," replied our Lord, 'syou
gave it to me that bitter night" And
these words for our direction come re-
sounding through the centuries, ''Inas-
much asye did it unto the least of these,
ye did it unto me-" And not the good
deeds alone, but the evil are done unto
him. The neglect of the poor, the OPP
preston of the poor, the placing or the
leaving of temptation before the poor,
the cruelty to the weak and helpless,
which you commit, or at which you fail
to cry out when others commit it, these
are all done unto Christ, as the cup of
cold water is given unto him. And to
whom much is given, of him will much
be required. 1t will not avail that one
of wealth and Intelligence shall have
given, like the peasant, his coat. He
must do according as it has been given
unto him.
He must respond with intelligent and
careful work, as well as with the dole
of dollars. He must see to it, that in
some way, all those to whom he is per-
sonally called, shall be benefited, and
that permanently If he is the employ
er Of large numbers of people, in any
capacity, he must feel his responsibility
to them, and study their we'll being as
well as his own, in all that he undertakes.
He must care for them in sickness, he
must watch over them in health, he
must see to it that they are guarded as
much as possible from temptation, that
they are encouraged and helped in their
efforts to save portion of their earn
ings. He must not shut them up in
dangerous and deadly work shops, he
must not rent to them pestilential hab-
itations, he must not pay to them star
walton wages, nor demand of them such
hard and exacting labor that it de-
stroys them body and soul. For all of
these things he will be brought into &C
count by the Equity of the universe.
There are thousands of employers to-
day who are committing atrocious
wrongs upon those employed by them,
and who deserve the execration of the
communities in which they live for
those wrongs, who are outwardly re
spectacle, and in some cases pious.
Poor women and girls are often the suf-
ferers from the extortions and exac-
tions of these men, and'Oftentimes they
do notdare to make their wrongs known,
so dependent are they upon the work
furnished them. Benevolent people can
do no greater service to their kind, than
to redress such wrongs, and to publish
to the world the men guilty of them.
Let us insist that all shall work, but let
us insist also that the worker shall be
protected from the rapacity and the in
justice of the unprincipled. Let us in
sist that he shall have wages in some